Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the old Bob Seger song is called turn the Page.
I played that once or twice on the radio, and
Nick Coffee is sitting here with me and he has
no idea what that song is.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I do you do? My goodness, I'm not kidding you.
I'm a huge Bob Seeger fan. It's a random fact.
It's probably not that interesting to people, But I like
Bob Seger a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
He would used to hang around in Louisville a lot
more in the nineteen seventies. From what I hear, I
wasn't on the radio and here until nineteen eighty five
on Whas you are a new morning Man here in
twenty twenty five. But Bob Seger is just one of
those cool people heck, who loved hanging around radio stations,
the kind of artist that you love.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good vibes from Bob Seger and hearing you say I'm
the new morning man on has Is it's still I
like hearing that. Can you say it again? I like that.
That's something I'm very very excited about.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
All Right, let's let people know who you are, because
you're coming on Monday morning and maybe they didn't hear
you own seven ninety you never know, so tell us
about your family, and so people get an idea who they.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Got to be hearing old morning, I am a thirty
I'll be thirty seven this summer, and I have been
married for fourteen years to my wonderful wife, Tiffany. I'm
not sure if they still use this saying. We are
I guess high school sweethearts. We grew up in same area,
went to school together, and we have two wonderful children.
My daughter Maya is nine. She's a special needs child.
(01:20):
She has autism and an intellectual disability. She's a rock star.
And then my son Mason, he'll be five in fact
next week, so he'll he'll a birthday here soon. And
one he goes by moose. He didn't choose it, but
I remember I was. I was. I was taking him
from the pack and play to his mother when he
was just a few months old, and I realized he's
(01:42):
getting big. And I don't know why it came to me,
but I said, he's like a moose, and then it
just stuck. She laughed, and since then he's been called moose.
A lot of people just call him that. So I'm
a family guy. I got my start at iHeartMedia here
over nine years ago on Sports Talk seven ninety, the
station that introduced me to what sport talk is, and
I've had three different shows within the station. Started at
(02:05):
middays noon to three, made the move to mornings a
couple of years after that, and I've been in the
afternoon drive from three to six for a little bit
over two years now. So sports is the background. Sports
has always been my passion. But as I've gotten older
and become more of a family man, and I guess
more grown up and more responsible, I find myself more
interested in things that would be more so fit for
(02:26):
whas than the sports talk. So I'm really looking forward
to it, and I'm well aware that there may be
people who the hell is this guy? Because you know,
I'm not Terry Miners, I'm not Tony Kruz, I'm not
Tony Vinetti, Dwight Whitten, people that have been doing this
a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
But you are Nick Coffee, and you have a unique
personality and we love you and we are all excited.
Tony Cruz told us about a year ago that the
clock was going to run out, the wick was going
to run out, and then we started going hmm and
your name came up right away and we stuck with it,
and we're all.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Thrilled to get you on a team that means a lot.
I'm thrilled to be to be a part of the team.
And it wasn't something I ever really even had thought about,
because I just wouldn't think that I would be on
the radar. But I got a phone call probably around
the time you're referencing, and it was pitched to me that,
you know, we think you could you could bring something
to the station in the mornings that we haven't had
(03:15):
a while, a little bit of youth. And I remember asking, well,
what would that look like? What would that sound like?
It's so different than what I've always done, and I
remember being told, well, just be yourself. And obviously there's
a lot of components that come with the show that's
different than what I'm used to. And since that day
here and there, hoping it would work out and I'd
be in this position, I've just been thinking of sort
(03:37):
of what I would do with certain segments and brushing
up on things that I need to be more knowledgeable
knowledgeable about to talk about. So I'm excited to be
on the team. It's going to be a different, different
gig in a lot of ways, but a big opportunity
I'm happy to have.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah, this signal has been so important to Middle America
for so long, not just this area, but this whole region.
And so last week I got some text from people
in Washington, DC, Hey, can you give me Nick coffees
contact info? So they're already putting you in their things
so that they'll start contacting you. And the Senator would
(04:11):
like to speak with you now. And then remember this,
you don't have to put the Senator on. That's some tea.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But to know that they would like the opportunity to
be on the airwaves of eight forty whas makes total
sense because that's what the station is. I I was
going to ask you, do you still it to me?
You've been doing this a long time, Terry, But are
there times where you are surprised by the reach of
a station like this? Yes, because anytime I'm on it
in any way, it's a reminder of just how different
(04:39):
it is, not just to the station that I'm a
part of, but really any station around here.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Right this station. I mean, I remember driving in Canada
with some buddies up they were up there fishing. I'm
their designated driver. I'm not much of a fisherman. We're like, hey,
let's check on the game, and we just immediately tune
in eight forty and there it is eighty four. We'reight, well,
that's pretty good reach tonight. But it was a winter night,
you know, or it was a fall night. Brother.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
My dad would tell me when we would drive back
from jackall Allen, Georgia from vacation at night that he
would he'd be able to tune in and listen. And
I remember thinking there's no way, And sure enough, it's
a powerful reach.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And obviously we're digitally platformed, so I get email occasionally
from ups pilots, let's say, and a guy will say,
I'm listening to you in Thailand or whatever. The station
means so much to so many people because it was
built upon the service of the community. Like a lot
of people will harken back to ninety years ago and
the flood of nineteen thirty seven, this radio station just
(05:40):
became the community call center for the whole city. They
just tuned in and the people were talking, I need help,
I need a both, there's a dead body on the ports,
there's this send them to fourteen Grand Street or whatever,
and so we just became a resource, yeah, for everybody.
There was another time they had the hurricane over on
(06:01):
the east coast of South Carolina and they had lost
all power and they were using this radio station to
communicate back to people that way, just because it was
one of the big signals they could get. I mean,
there are a bunch of us, you know. Wl W
Cincinnati is seven hundred, we're the eight forty spot in
Chicago at seven twenty and eighty nine in New York
(06:23):
at sixty six, seventy seven, eighty eight. Those are all
clear channel, open signals, so they can blow out to
these wide audiences. And they we were given that right
to collectively keep those channels open for civil defense, just
in case. That was back in the day, you know,
in the fifties. They're like, what happens if the government
needs to talk to everybody?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
You're educating me. This is yeah, I mean it makes totally.
So we are by cluster.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Are still talking to each other, the fifty thousand watts
stations to make sure that we hold on to our juice,
our power. So we've had to fight the government a
few times because they go, Wow, you got Twitter now,
But it's like, yeah, but we still.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Need this and it's there. You never know when there's
going to be something happened to where this could once again.
It's still gonna be. It's always it's a constant resource
for people every day with their commute and entertainment and
all that. But yeah, I mean it's it's a needed thing.
And I give you a story about the time I
really learned just how powerful this station is, and I
guess really just a reminder of the history of it.
The day that Rick Patino and Tom Jurich were effectively terminated,
(07:27):
I was on from noon to three at that time,
and because it was such a big day, they put
me on HAS as well on seven ninety eight forty
and we bumped rush Limbaugh. Oh my, and phone lines
are lighting up, and I'm thinking, every but this is
this is, this is HAS this is people want to
talk about the big news. No, they were upset that
we preempted RUSSI Rush Limbaugh because of the big news.
(07:49):
And at that time I was still relatively new to iHeart,
but I'd been trying to make my way in radio
for about six seven years. But that day was the
day where I think to this point, I had more
people reach out to me. I heard you on has
some people who didn't even know that I was trying
to do, trying to get a career in radio, and
that just really it was an eye opener for me
(08:10):
because that's a reach you can feel, and to have
that opportunity is something that it still doesn't seem real,
but it's real. It's here, and I'm excited for Monday
morning and really looking forward to joining the team.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, you're going to open up a whole lot of
other layers to the Onion, so people will know more
about you as you get to work here. But I
just want to remind the people listening to us we
understand the value of radio intimacy. This is the most
personal form of communication outside face to face, and people
(08:42):
listen to us in all sorts of sectors of life.
People are listening to us in a barn taking care
of animals. They're listening to us while they're doing their
job quietly at some desk, or they're streaming us at
WHS dot com. And there are people that just love
talk radio. The spoken word radio reaches people bull because
we are talking to you one on one. And don't
(09:03):
you love that about this that people pay attention to
what you say.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
No doubt about it. And I think to know that
that it's it's it's been a constant for so many people,
generations of families. I mean, if you, if you, I
mean I have I have a cousin who who found
out the news last week that I was that I
was taking over for Tony Cruz, and he shared how
he still listens every day and it was because his
father would listening to Wayne Perky and it just became
(09:28):
it was a part of his family's routine in the morning,
and they're with their radio, and of course they're commute,
and uh, just those are things that you know, when
you get caught up, you know, you don't think about
that a whole lot. When people share that with you,
it really does open your eyes that has is really
a part of people's life right in a way that
is just different than I think a lot of other
mediums suspect but even even radio as well. Just if
(09:49):
this is just a different kind of thing. And and
as this this has been coming together, it's really really
stood out. And again it's it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Nick Coffee, We were happy to have you in the
lineup and you join an amazing cast of morning hosts.
Jim Walton back in the nineteen i want to say
fifties and sixties was the morning guy, you know, with
a big voice. He was the Crusade for children host
and he had did some work on TV. And then
Wayne Perky ran thirty years, Bob Sikohler was in here
(10:20):
a few years, then Tony Cruz has done it twenty
one years. So you're gonna you know, that's a heck
of a roster of people.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I better not screw it up.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
You're gonna be fine. Yeah, And your sports knowledge just
brings that much more to another dimension. But you're not
limited to talk at sports. You talk about whatever you want.
That's the beauty of this station.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yes, and I'm looking forward to talking about I mean,
having a lot of range to to kind of go
in different directions, but talking about things that I know,
regardless of what you think about when it comes to sports,
you can probably relate because you're a family man. You know,
you've got kids and that kind of stuff. And that's
what's really energized me is a new opportunity here. Of course,
a big opportunity. But it's exciting to be able to nowadays,
(11:01):
if I was to take the conversation in a certain
direction that's not about sports, there's people, Hey, I thought
this was a sports show, right, you don't have to
do that. Yeah, I can't fake it that I want
to have a segment about the third string depth chart
of the offensive line. It's just, you know, sometimes I
want to talk about things that I know people care
about that's not sports.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
You're going to talk to a lot of fascinating business leaders,
obviously political leaders, but the best people you talk to
are the same ones you talk to on a sports show.
It's just real folks working jobs who just want to
tell you their story, and we love hearing it, no doubt.
Nick Coffee. He starts Monday morning here on news Radio
eight forty whas all right, now, does anybody have a
(11:41):
pen knife? We need to do the whole blood swap thing. Now,
let's don't that's the initiation. This isn't like Joe Peshy
and Goodfellows where they drive you to some garage. Yeah,
and there's nobody there. You're really on the team.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Nick, I like to hear that. Very excited. Thanks Terry